In submerged sandy slopes, soil is frequently eroded as a combination of two main mechanisms: breaching, which refers to the retrogressive failure of a steep slope forming a turbidity current, and instantaneous sliding wedges, known as shear failure, that also contribute to shape the morphology of the soil deposit. Although there are several modes of failures, in this paper we investigate breaching and shear failures of granular columns using the two-fluid approach. The numerical model is first applied to simulate small-scale granular column collapses (Rondon et al., Phys. Fluids, vol. 23, 2011, 073301) with different initial volume fractions to study the role of the initial conditions in the main flow dynamics. For loosely packed granular columns, the porous medium initially contracts and the resulting positive pore pressure leads to a rapid collapse. Whereas in initially dense-packing columns, the porous medium dilates and negative pore pressure is generated stabilizing the granular column, which results in a slow collapse. The proposed numerical approach shows good agreement with the experimental data in terms of morphology and excess of pore pressure. Numerical results are extended to a large-scale application (Weij, doctoral dissertation, 2020, Delft University of Technology; Alhaddad et al., J. Mar. Sci. Eng., vol. 11, 2023, 560) known as the breaching process. This phenomenon may occur naturally at coasts or on dykes and levees in rivers but it can also be triggered by humans during dredging operations. The results indicate that the two-phase flow model correctly predicts the dilative behaviour and the subsequent turbidity currents associated with the breaching process.

Basking sharks Cetorhinus maximus tend to aggregate in summer at favoured locations along Britain and Ireland's west coast. Sharks have been described approaching and close-following one another, often to one side. This has been interpreted as putative pre-mating behaviour. At aggregation sites around the Inner Hebrides we used boat-based observation and in-water and overhead drone video-photography to document behaviour and to determine the sex of individuals. It was confirmed that a shark will frequently move purposely towards another from a distance and swim to maintain a position either directly behind or closely to one side of a conspecific for short periods. Contrary to expectation, we found no relationship between the sex of a shark or its size and close-following. This suggests that following behaviours are not mainly related to courtship. Further, abrasions on the nose suspected to be related to male behaviour were found to occur on both sexes, although abrasions on pectoral fins, similarly suggestive of mating-related behaviour, were predominantly on females. Breaching by basking sharks has also been proposed as a means of attracting the opposite sex. We observed breaching by solitary sharks but commonly by sharks within aggregations, and at other times by more than one shark on the same day at the same time; but there was not any clear evidence to indicate that breaching is primarily related to mating. More likely individuals show close following chiefly for feeding-related hydrodynamic advantage. It remains plausible however that mature sharks make use of feeding aggregations to initiate pre-courtship behaviour.